The Holy Grail seems at times a more reasonable quest.
The standard for behavior and rhetoric has become intolerance and abuse. New allegations of harassment and assault are so numbingly common in the continuous news cycle that we can’t remember which actor, which athlete, which politician provided the last denial or tears of reptilian remorse. No one is entitled to their own opinion nor do we “agree to disagree” (whatever that meant anyway). People who see things differently are “idiots” treated with a level of disdain we used to reserve to trot out seasonally for the fans of rival sports teams.
“A man never hurts a woman” my mother scolded after I beaned my big sister in the head with a stone thrown carelessly over my shoulder in her direction. “Walk her to the door!” my dad hissed as I sat passively in the back seat of the station wagon while my date made her way up the sidewalk after a ride home from a high school band party. Offer your seat. Hold the door. Don’t be unkind. Offer it up. Think of others. Do your best.
It seems like a vision from a different world.
But perhaps these days it’s a world worth remembering; one worth fighting for again.
My mother gave me the gift of knight vision.
Not the ability to see in the dark but the desire to push against it. Continue reading
Henry V 4.3 